An activist guards the land at Borapansury.
Aizawl, Jun 13 : The Mizo Zirlai Pawl’s plan to build a Mizo rest house at Borapansury within the Chakma autonomous district council in southern Mizoram has triggered communal tension.
The MZP, an apex student organisation, has
decided to go ahead with its plan to construct the Zofate Chawlhbuk or
Mizo rest house from June 25 despite stiff opposition from Chakma
organisations, which had even boycotted the June 4 byelection to
Borapansury-II MDC (member of district council) seat in protest against
the allotment of government land within the Chakma area to the MZP.
An MZP release hoped there would be “no
obstruction” in construction of the rest house, land for which has been
legally allocated to the MZP by the food, civil supplies and consumer
affairs department. “It has been decided that work will commence from
June 25,” it added.
The MZP said the byelection boycott was
“disregard for and violation of democracy” and criticised local
legislator and minister B.D. Chakma for taking part in the protest.
It warned that if Chakmas do not allow
construction of a Mizo rest house within the Chakma ADC on communal
grounds, the MZP would take offence over the construction of Chakma
House in Aizawl and the Chakma rest house in Lunglei district
headquarters.
Sources said the MZP has been alleging
Chakma infiltration in the area from Bangladesh and has felt a strong
need to construct a rest house in the Chakma-dominated area to assert
ownership of Mizoram territory.
MZP president Lalhmachhuana alleged that
the Chakma population had abnormally increased in the Lunglei and
Lawngtlai districts of southern Mizoram, both of which border
Bangladesh, in the last few years, indicating largescale influx of
Chakmas.
“We will take steps to drive out Chakma
foreigners from Mizoram. We will pursue the matter with the Prime
Minister’s office, as we have high hopes on Narendra Modi who had
promised to drive out Bangladeshi migrants from the Northeast,” he
added.
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